Tourist traffic mapping, FTOs’ coding, essential to drive growth

Almost 11mn tourist (FTA) came to India last year. The International Tourist Arrival (ITA) which is calculated as FTA plus NRI arrivals was around 18 million in 2019. The new draft Tourism Policy is aiming for a near twofold growth in ITA over the next five years.

Impression Tourism Services’ Director & CEO Debjit Dutta says that this is a very ambitious target, but achievable nevertheless if Union Ministry of Tourism and States undertake some much needed steps in that direction. Tourist mapping, giving all four regions (East West North and South) adequate space in Incredible India’s marketing & promotion and coding foreign buyers are some of the much needed steps, he insists.

Dutta argues that traffic mapping not only gives you the actual number of travellers who visited a destination or a monument but also gives an idea as to why tourists are not travelling to other potential destinations or famous heritage sites in the vicinity. A comprehensive and well developed data addresses that. It helps us understand where all tourists are visiting and the efforts that needs to be made to diversify and distribute the tourist to other destinations and attractions.

“When you have set your goals high and are gearing up to achieve a number which is almost double of the current size you need to review the traffic movement or we can say traffic mapping is essential. There may be five potential pockets beyond world famous heritage or monument site but because of the lack of promotions and branding these pockets may not attract any traffic,” says Dutta.

International tourists coming to India are concentrated to the certain parts or products of the country i. e.  Golden Triangle, Backwaters in Kerala, Heritage and Religious places in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, Adventure in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand etc.

Ministry of Tourism spends a lot of money in inviting Foreign Tour Operators (FTOs) on FAM trip. Some time you have quite a few repeat buyers on the trip. “If there is a system of tagging FTOs with a unique identification number, the government can review their productivity and potential of generating business to India. If any buyer is doing well for the country but not for pan India, we should encourage him/her to promote other parts of the country as well,” says Dutta.

“For instance if any operator is selling India but sending tourists to only certain pockets of the country there is no point to bringing him multiple times just to showcase Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Rather we can push the operator to go to the eastern part of the country i.e. Kolkata, Meghalaya, and Assam etc. for the firsthand experience. There are chances that the operator may generate more traffic to India in future,” he explains.

Top Recommendations

1. Regional branding of Incredible India.
2. Traffic mapping.
3. Agent’s coding with unique customer/identification number.
4. Focus on further development of river cruise.
5. Allow self regulated buyers trips by registered DMC’s under MDA scheme.

Apart from that, “All our campaigns and promotional activities should be based on the ‘Four Regions’ (North, East, West and South) to enhance its product offering by including more regional destinations followed by equal distribution of traffic across the country,” says Dutta.

He suggests that when targeting 100 per cent growth in ITAs, we should keep in mind that almost 70 per cent of India is still unexplored by foreign travellers. He believes that as we already have convinced markets and travellers who have tried and tested our products, focusing on traditional markets would be more result oriented.

He realised that more focused approach is required to further develop the River cruise tourism which is the most interesting niche product not only for domestic tourists but for cross border tourism as well. “Between India and Bangladesh there are three major rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Teesta that connects regions’ cultural, natural and geographical diversities amazingly. River Cruise on the Ganges is very niche and saleable product,” insists Dutta.